Good day, citizens, and welcome to this week's edition of the Thomas Jefferson Hour.

This week, another in our ten-thing series, and we're so pleased to welcome back Dr. Lindsey

Chervinsky along with the creator of the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Mr. Clay Jenkinson, and

welcome to you both.

This week's subject is Dr. Benjamin Rushin.

Before I turn to the conversation over the two of you, I thought I might offer the following.

Benjamin Rush was born on December 24, 1745.

He lived to the age of 67, dying of typhus fever on April 19, 1813, known as a civic leader

in Philadelphia.

He was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and a Pennsylvania

delegate to the Continental Congress.

He was an enthusiastic supporter of the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration

of Independence, and served as surgeon general of the Continental Army.

Rushes remembered as a leader of the American Enlightenment, and an advocate for reforms

in medicine and education.

He opposed slavery, supported free public schools, sought improved education for women, and

a more enlightened penal system.

As a leading physician of his time, Rushes believed that illness was the result of imbalances

in the body's physical system and was caused by malfunctions in the brain.

He promoted public health by advocating clean environments and stressing the importance

of personal and military hygiene, and his study of mental disorder made him one of the

founders of American psychiatry.

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